S5. Episode 9. Mr. Blackwell

Chaz and the assembled Order of Mildly Concerned Scholars (Wolfy, Scott, Corey, and returning guests Heath McCoy, Laura Morrissette, Debbie Pastore, and Michael Pastore) set out this week expecting to discuss "Mr. Blackwell."

Instead, they find themselves attending his funeral.

Not literally.

Emotionally.

Because this week isn't really about the song.

It's about what happens when the villain finally gets a chance to explain himself.

What unfolds is less a chapter of Scott's ever-expanding Elder screenplay and more a direct transmission from a past nobody was expecting to feel sorry for. The armies vanish. The battlefield falls silent. The purple lightning takes the night off.

And standing where the monster used to be...

...is a father.

A grieving widower trying to protect his daughter.

A man desperately looking for purpose after loss.

A future tyrant who, disturbingly, sounds an awful lot like a hero.